Traditionally, English translations of
Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations
are published with the original German on
the left-hand side of the page and the
right. I find this very useful,
especially when speaking with a German
audience. I even found it useful in
studying German. Wittgenstein's German
is unusually easy for a native English
speaker to learn to read, and even easier,
of course, with the translation on the right
side of the page.

You might also like to read a little
about Wittgenstein's remarkable life (he
gave away a vast fortune to charity, for
example). This short book by Norman
Malcolm is, undoubtedly, the best
short introduction to Wittgenstein, the man.

Shawver Commentary:

This commentary in the pages of this
website is not meant to replace your reading
of Wittgenstein in the original. For that, of
course, you will need to acquire the
book.

This commentary is meant to give you a
taste of Wittgentein, or, if you are really
ready, to help you get started. The
problem is that while Wittgenstein's writing
style is quite beautiful, almost poetic,
it is so unusual, that all of us, it seems,
need a little help in the beginning. It
is my hope that after you read this
commentary, however, that his meanings will
appear transparent to you when you hold your
copy of this wonderful book in your hands.

One of the most difficult or misleading
aspects of Wittgenstein's Philosophical
Investigations is the way in which he uses
multiple voices to converse with
himself. To have a sense of
understanding Wittgenstein, you need to be
able to hear these different voices.

The Philosophical Investigations is written
in aphorisms, short numbered passages that are
loosely tied together in terms of theme.
He often begins an aphorism with a quoted
passage. For example, he begins the
first aphorism with a quotation from
Augustine. Most quoted passages are not
actual quotes, however, but rather
Wittgenstein's construction of a kind of
interlocutor. This interlocutor might be
thought of in terms of Augustine, Plato,
characters in Plato, Bertrand Russell or even
early Wittgenstein, or perhaps just a vague
composite of these various figures. At
any rate, this voice (and it is not always in
quotes) represents the problem that
Wittgenstein tries to think through. I
will call this the voice of tradition and
symbolize it at times as "T".

It is useful to think of there being two
additional voices. One is the voice that
discovers perplexities or aporia. This
voice is often, but not always, introduced
with a dash and it often, but again not
always, begins with the word
"But". I will call this the
voice of aporia and symbolize it at times as
"A".

Then, there is a third voice in which
Wittgenstein makes an incisive point in the
face of the tradition and aporia.
Wittgenstein wanted this voice to be
completely clear. I will symbolize it at
times as "C".

So, the basic format of many of the
aphorisms is:

voice

example

voice of Tradition

Everything has an essence.

voice of
Aporia

But is this true?

voice of
Clarity

It seems that this notion has been a
presumption.

Of course, these examples greatly simplify
the content of all Wittgenstein will say, and,
not every passage has quite this form. But if
you look for these different voices, it should
assist you making sense of what you find in
these pages.

I suggest that you never presume that these
voices are all there in any given
passage. He sometimes introduces, for
example, a thought experiment that he calls
"language games", and in those cases
it does not make much sense to speak of these
three voices. But, you might examine a
passage to see if thinking of it in these
terms helps that passage make sense to
you. If it does, then you're probably
right in presuming that the passage in
question adopts this standard format.

When I see this format being used, I will
often call your attention to it, referring to
it at times as "LW's standard
format."